the ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelensky, He called on Western countries on Wednesday to decide “quickly” on the Polish proposal to send them Mig-29 fighter jets. to help deal with the Russian invasion.
(Read: Advisor to the President of Ukraine hints at resignation to join NATO)
“Make a decision as quickly as possible, send us your planes!“, asked the president in a video posted on the application Telegram. Poland proposed on Tuesday to make its warplanes available to the United States for shipment to Ukraine, but Washington deemed the proposal “not feasible.”
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According to John Kirby, a Pentagon spokesman in a statement, helping Ukraine militarily in the face of Russia’s attack “raises significant concerns for NATO as a whole.” For its part, Russia warned that Poland’s proposal would create a “potentially dangerous scenario.”
“We thank Poland,” Zelensky said on Wednesday, lamenting that “no decision” has been made on the matter., on the fourteenth day of the Russian offensive. “Polish proposals are not being supported“, lament. “When will there be a decision?‘ the president wondered.
Only some Eastern European countries, former members of the Warsaw Pact, officially have Soviet Mig-29s, whose characteristics correspond to the Ukrainian needs to deal with Russian attacks.
Some member states of the European Union, including Poland, are willing to offer fighter jets to the Ukrainian armed forces, according to Brussels. Germany confirmed however that it would not send fighter jets to Ukraine.
“We have made available all kinds of equipment and, as you know, some weapons, but for the rest we have to think very hard about what we are actually doing, and that certainly does not include fighter jets,” the German chancellor said in Berlin during a joint press conference with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
The Kremlin’s warning
Russia warned on Wednesday that Poland’s proposal to transfer MiG-29 fighter jets to Ukraine via a US airbase would create a “potentially dangerous scenario”.
“It is a very undesirable and potentially dangerous scenario,” Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov said. Poland asked to be allowed to move these Soviet-made planes to the Ramstein base in Germany “without delay and free of charge” and make them available to the United States.
However, Washington is reluctant to send them to Ukraine later — a move that Russia could see as a significant escalation — and considers it an “unworkable” proposal.
(Read more: Ukrainian woman shot down a Russian drone with a jar of tomatoes in Kiev)
According to John Kirby, a Pentagon spokesman in a statement, helping Ukraine militarily in the face of Russia’s attack “raises significant concerns for NATO as a whole.” For its part, Russia warned that Poland’s proposal would create a “potentially dangerous scenario”.
According to the American press, the idea was to provide Poland with American F-16s in exchange for Migs to be delivered to Ukraine. In Britain, British Defense Minister Ben Wallace said Tuesday that Poland’s decision would be “a good thing” but could put the country “in the direct line of fire” of Russia and Belarus.
NATO has the last word
Poland is ready to hand over its Mig-29 fighters to Ukraine, as Kiev insists, but asks that the decision be made by NATOwhile Moscow warns that this situation would create a “potentially dangerous scenario”.
“Poland is not part of this war and neither is NATO. A decision as serious as moving the planes must be taken unanimously by all of NATO,” Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki reiterated on Wednesday during a visit to Vienna. “This decision is today in the hands of NATO (…) We only deliver defensive weapons,” he added.
On Tuesday, Poland said it was ready “to deliver without delay and free of charge all its Mig-29 aircraft at the base [alemana] of Ramstein to the US government,” according to a statement from the Polish Foreign Ministry.
“Sending Polish Mig-29s to Ramstein is a smart move,” says political scientist Marcin Zaborowski. “Poland cannot wait for its security to depend on a green traffic light from Washington or London. It can help, but it is the West that has to make that decision,” she added.
According to the newspaper Gazeta Wyborczathe big question “is not whether Ukraine will receive the Polish Mig-29s, but how to hand them over to the Kiev authorities” without provoking a reaction from Moscow.
According to international law, the country from which an armed plane takes off could be considered as a country that joins the war, explains the newspaper, which Warsaw wants to avoid at all costs.
The announcement sparked a diplomatic tangle with Washington, which rejected the offer, saying it could spark a source of “serious concern” for NATO as negotiations continue in the military alliance and the EU over sending planes to Ukraine.
On February 27, the head of European diplomacy, Josep Borrell, had mentioned the subject for the first time. “The head of the Ukrainian diplomacy Dmytro Kuleba said that he needed planes that the Ukrainians can fly. Some member states have this type of planes and we are going to deliver them with other weapons necessary for a war,” he declared at the time.
Poland has thirty Migs, but only 23 would be able to operate, according to the media.
EFE and AFP
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